Hi All,

So, recent circumstances have left me with nothing but time on my hands. AKA...enigmaMN we love you, but we're eliminating your position and there are no other openings at this time.. blah blah blah. So, that being said... what better way to kill some time with some mileage run fun

That being said... I'm clueless. I've read some of the monstrous FAQ's, etc. but they left me more confused than before I started. Can anyone provide a newbie some guidance?

I'm based in MSP... would prefer MR for either AA or NW miles.

Thanks :-)

If there is any way you can get to Phoenix for the MR seminar being offered on Oct 18, I would strongly suggest it. See the thread that was just started on this page.

You might want to also give more info - what are your goals for mileage running? Do you want to gain a certain status with AA or NW by the end of the year? Will you be traveling a lot next year and can use the benefits that come with whatever status you attain? Those are a couple just for starters.

John

I'd love to go to the MR Seminar in PHX... I'll look into that more. As far as my goals... honestly just want to accumulate some mileage cheaply and be able to redeem to visit friends and family. As far as status, while it would be awesome to obtain status, I'm not dead set on obtaining it. This is just something to do for fun. Hopefully, that helps.

If your goal is simply to rack up miles, a MR is IMHO a fairly expensive way to do it, particularly as a MSP hub captive (note my hometown). Like yourself, I am fairly new to this - I started to pay attention to my miles accounts only recently when a change in my job routine had me flying a bit more frequently, though not a ton by FT standards.

In the last year, I've managed to accrue miles at a rate greatly disproportionate to the number of miles I've flown through credit card and partner activities (lots of reimbursed business spending on a few credit cards). There are other opportunities that present themselves as well - (check out the Miles to Go thread on the NW forum for an example).

Certainly, fly to your heart's content. The more circuitous you can make the journey, the better. But I wouldn't go anywhere you didn't want to be just for the sake of RDMs. If you're chasing status however...

heh.. good ol' MSP. Honestly, it's just something for me to do. If I obtain status awesome. I love to fly... yes even crazy 6+ segment days of flying. We'll see what happens, I suppose. :-)

runninaway is quite right about the economics. Unless you are going to redeem miles on international travel in biz or first, and can do MRs which net miles at exceptionally low cpm, it probably is a losing economic proposition. Now if you fly a particular airline a lot already and want to achieve status on that airline; or, if you are within striking distance of a big award, e.g., a transpac in biz or first, and want to MR to get the additional miles needed; or, there are other special circumstances, that may be different. But do the numbers first to see if it would be worth it at say 3.0 cpEQM, which is a very "economical" MR, and one you won't find so easily.

This is a losing proposition for anyone other than an expert and you're a beginner.

Unless you're independently wealthy you might want to hold off on this hobby until you get a new job because it can be both addictive and expensive.

What are the criteria for expert MRer? If one qualifies, in addition to whatever benies the airline bestows, do they get a merit badge to wear?

Guys that know the ins and outs of ITA, expertflyer, etc. and know how to manipulate the programs to find routings I would not have dreamed of. Tclin and wanaflyforless come to mind.

Yes, Tclinand wanaflyforless surely qualify as such. But does Tclin do the actual MRing, or is he just kind enough to share ideas with the rest of us? (I know that wanaflyforless does in fact do those grueling BIS itineraries.